Chapter 5 #2
“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. Can we pretend that I didn’t? I’m so sorry.” I got up and rounded Maddy’s chair, pulling her into my arms. A steady stream of tears trailed her cheeks, and I felt like a knife was lodged in my chest.
“How about lunch? Are you guys ready for some tea, and maybe some cake? There’s a fountain.
” I cradled Maddy’s face to the terrycloth robe of my chest and rocked her as she silently sobbed.
With a loud sniffle and a swipe of tears from Seraphina and Mila, they all broke out of it and finally started smiling.
“A real fountain with water and everything?”
Smiling at them and relieved that the blunder was behind me, I nodded.
“You can throw in pennies!”
I knew the girls were in, so we dressed, and while each of them stared at their silky, tangle-free hair in the mirror, I made a mental note to buy them some hair accessories to help them at home.
Lunch was a breeze as the girls ate and stared in wonder at the large room with ceilings at least sixty feet tall.
The sights of the mountains left me speechless.
Snowcapped, and standing tall against a blush-colored sky, the outline of the moon was already up, tucked behind the tip of Mount Macon.
Little dots of black splattered the mountain where pieces of snow had melted from the trees.
It was the most gorgeous view I had ever seen.
Even the girls chewed in peaceful silence as we all stared in wonder.
Once we were done with our sandwiches, each girl took a handful of coins from my purse and unloaded them into the fountain, each one with a wish.
We were laughing all the way back to Macon as a call came through my Bluetooth car speaker. Seeing that it was Liam, I pressed answer without thinking twice.
“Hey, Liam.”
“Where are you?” he snapped.
Maddy’s face swung my direction quick as lightning, realizing I was in trouble.
I hastily disconnected and swapped to my cell phone.
“I texted you the address of where we were going.”
I had. Before we even left the city, I had texted him.
“I haven’t had a chance to check it all day. Haley, do you have any idea what it was like to pick up my phone and see that you’d decided to drive my kids out of the city? It’s still snowing at that resort and the roads are slick. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I wasn’t a fan of his tone, or the fact that he seemed to be panicked when there was no need for it.
“I’m on my way back to Nora’s house…”
He just got confirmation that his kids were safe and on their way home. Hopefully he’d relax a little.
“Fuck. Do you have any idea how fucking terrified I was, not knowing where they were?”
A splintering feeling compressed in my lungs as I listened to him yell. Why was he so upset?
I finally cut into his tirade with my business voice.
“I’m literally five minutes away. Surely this rant can wait until I get there.
I don’t want to be unsafe with the girls in the car.
” It was the sort of tone I used in board meetings and when men tried to make me feel less than just for being a woman.
Fuck this guy if he honestly thought just because I babysat for him—for free— he had the right to talk to me like I was dirt beneath his feet.
The car was silent as we drove through the city limits and past Main Street and finally pulled into the driveway. Liam stood outside the house, his arms crossed and the breath clouding in front of his face.
“Okay girls, let’s get out. I am assuming your daddy will be taking you home, so I will see you next time, okay?” I said, injecting enthusiasm into my tone.
They had done nothing wrong, so there was no reason whatsoever to make them feel like they had.
Liam was at their door, helping them down.
“Let’s go. Get in the car,” he said sternly.
I noticed how his fingers trailed through Mila’s hair, and he inspected it as if he wasn’t sure it was real. He inspected Maddy’s and Seraphina’s next.
Slowly, I made my way around the car and tucked my purse into my side. I wasn’t in a hurry to explain myself because it didn’t really seem like he’d even be interested in what I had to say. What was the point?
Finally, once the girls were safe inside his running vehicle, Liam turned toward me.
His eyes flashed, and my chest tightened.
I hadn’t intentionally done anything wrong, but the look on his face undid me.
He was genuinely afraid for his girls, and it was just plain shitty that I had made him feel that.
I decided right there I’d just take whatever he said.
I wouldn’t defend my actions or explain, I’d just take all of his words and emotions like a dart board and let his words stick wherever they landed.
Right as he was about to lay into me, my brother’s door opened and Colson stepped out. He looked like hell, but his face was set hard, like stone, his eyes glued to Liam.
“Whatever you’re about to say, you better be damn certain of every fucking word, because I might just break your jaw afterward.”
Chills spread out along my arms and down my fingers as a tiny flicker of warmth invaded my chest.
No one had ever stood up for me before…especially no one from my family.
Liam’s jaw tensed while he stared up at Colson, then ever so slowly he lowered his eyes until he met my gaze.
“I honestly can’t even begin to fathom what must have gone through your head for you to think it would be okay to take someone else’s children out of town to—.”
“You had no reason to worry. I told you where they went,” Colson said with exasperation.
Liam scoffed, shaking his head while muttering a few curses.
“You know more than anyone why I freaked out, Cole. You know…”
Suddenly Colson was stomping down the steps and getting in Liam’s face.
“I do know. I also know my sister wouldn’t put them in harm’s way. She even double-checked with me before she left. She would never do anything to hurt them.”
Liam pushed Colson out of his space. “Oh, suddenly she’s your sister now? That’s rich…”
“Fuck you!” Colson seethed, standing in between Liam and me.
“No, fuck you, Colson. How could you agree to let her take my girls outside of the city? Why the fuck would you think I would be okay with that?”
Liam’s eyes were watery, his face red, but it was more than that—something was off. I had done something irrevocably wrong by taking them. This was a trauma response.
“Liam, I shouldn’t have taken them out of town.” I raised my hands. “I was out of line for doing it.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” Colson snapped at me, pulling my hand so I wasn’t moving closer to Liam. I hadn’t actually apologized once, all I did was own up to what I did do wrong, but I wasn’t sorry about it.
“I get that you’re pissed, but when I asked if I could take them out, that was your opportunity to tell me no.” I stepped closer, gaining steam.
“I may not be a parent, but if I was that nervous about them being out of town, I would make damn sure the person caring for my child knew about my reservations.” I was practically toe to toe with Liam at this point.
His chest heaved up and down as his eyes burned into mine. He didn’t seem worried now, he looked like he wanted to fight. He was all hard lines, tattoos peeking out from beneath his dark suit, but under that was a broken heart. He was a pacing lion, desperate to protect what was his.
I stared at Liam. He stared back.
He stepped closer, towering over me.
Our fingers brushed. His pointer fingers barely twitched, and then it stroked down the length of mine.
It was so small, so minuscule, I thought I had imagined it, but his eyes were on mine, and that’s when I saw it.
His need to be touched. To be settled and calmed.
So, I stepped closer, then very awkwardly lifted my arms, feeling so uneasy that I had to slam my eyes shut as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
The breath I was holding came out jagged and rough when I told him, “They’re safe. They had a good day.”
He didn’t return my hug, which was fine. I stood still as stone, and Colson muttered “prick” at my back.
The wind blew snow off the top of Nora’s house, swirling around us as we stood in the yard.
Right when I was about to pull away, Liam’s arms came around me, crushing me to his chest. He held me there, not saying anything.
It was an odd, silent truce, unlike anything I had ever felt or encountered before.
Time seemed to slow, the darkening sky blinked as fresh snow fell, and I felt his fingers tangle through the ends of my hair.
Just then I remembered his earlier comment and how rude he’d been about me having money, again. That, paired with how he treated me tonight, and suddenly I was less than enthused about making him feel better. I pulled away and kept my face down.
“Haley—” He swallowed around what sounded like a lump in his throat.
I kept my eyes low as I stepped away.
I triggered the dude. I could own that. It was shitty.
But I wasn’t a doormat. I was here in Macon, trying to create a new life for myself, and the last thing I wanted was for people to assume they could treat me any way they felt was okay.
The whole damn town seemed to be perfectly comfortable with treating me that way.
He turned, repeating my name once more, but the day had caught up with me.
I had hurt Liam, but he had hurt me first. He was thoughtless and careless first. He had judged me first. I was so tired of becoming small so that others’ hurts could fit.
I put myself on the back burner time and time again because someone else needed the attention. It was exhausting.
Without looking back, I walked to my door, unlocked it, and shut myself inside.